Jeff’s Past: Doppelgänger, Los Angeles
After going on to graduate from UCLA in 1975 with a Masters in Photography and Design I continued to live LA for the next nine years.
During that time I started to get phone calls for another Jeff Gates! Over the years I was able to follow his career by quizzing these misdirected callers, from being student body president at USC, to law school, and, proudly, to passing the Bar.
Once, very late one night, I got a call from an irate mother who wanted to know where her daughter was! Sadly, I didn’t have a clue.
In 1984, I got an offer to teach at the University of Washington. Before I left town, I called this other Jeff Gates to say good bye. When he answered the phone I said: “Is this Jeff Gates the Lawyer? Well, I’m the other Jeff Gates and I’ve been getting your calls for years!” “Oh,” he said, “you must be the artist!”
I invited him to lunch in hopes of seeing our connection. But he didn’t look anything like me.